About Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation (MRBF) -MRBF’s mission is to help people and places move out of poverty and achieve greater social and economic justice. The board and staff have committed to centering racial equity across all their work and partnering with communities to build power for people who have been denied access to instruments of power throughout American history.
-MRBF works across 11 Southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia), supporting organizations and networks making progress along three interconnected pathways of change: economic opportunity, supportive policies and institutions, and democracy and civic engagement. It is exploring new ways to amplify a broad range of voices and strengthen leaders who reflect the full diversity of the South’s demographics while continuing some core approaches: centering communities in solutions, helping organizations build their capacity to do more, cultivating innovative partnerships, and advancing systems change with long-term resources.
-MRBF seeks to use all available tools, including grantmaking, impact investing, influencing, leveraging, communications, and learning, to advance its mission. The blueprint for MRBF’s work can be found here.
The Opportunity:
-The Chief Impact and Fieldbuilding Officer (CIFO) will drive the Foundation’s influence and leverage strategy, deepen impact for grantee partners, program-related investment partners, and narrative partners, and connect the relationships, knowledge, and infrastructure needed to move more dollars and power towards Southern communities and movements. A newly created role, the CIFO will work closely with the CEO and leadership team to design, advance, and refine the impact and fieldbuilding strategy. In close, genuine partnership with the Chief Strategy Officer, the CIFO will help shape the Program Team’s strategy and approach and ensure that insights related to program learning and impact, narrative and storytelling, and influence and leverage are aligned with and inform Board learning and decision making.
-The CIFO will also serve as one of the Foundation’s key external representatives across networks, coalitions, and movement infrastructure, sharing insights and shaping conversations that help move resources and power to movements, leaders, and organizations in the South.
Key Responsibilities:
Impact & Fieldbuilding Strategy -Provide strategic and collaborative leadership of four core functions: impact, learning, influence and leverage, and narrative and storytelling.
-Define, advance, and refine the Foundation’s Impact and Fieldbuilding strategy, providing oversight for how field intelligence and best practices are collected, translated into actionable strategies, and developed into compelling narratives.
-Collaboratively lead with Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) and partner closely with their team to align programs with impact, learning, fieldbuilding, and narrative strategies, and to ensure insights are integrated across grantmaking and program-related investments.
-Foster two-way learning between the institution and the field, ensuring insights from grantee, narrative, philanthropic and PRI partners shape the Foundation’s strategy andpractice, while also channeling the Foundation’s own learning back out to strengthen field knowledge and funder behavior.
Leadership and Management -Supervise the Learning and Impact Officer, the Narrative Fellow, and the Field and Influence and Leverage Officer, providing oversight and ensuring alignment with the Foundation’s Impact & Fieldbuilding strategy
-Guide the development and implementation of tools and systems that collect and organize data and stories, making them easily accessible for storytelling and field-building.
-Ensure Impact and Fieldbuilding team works collaboratively across the Foundation to accomplish goals related to impact, learning, influence and leverage, and narrative and storytelling.
-Serve on the Leadership Team; bringing forward issues to ensure impact and fieldbuilding strategy support the Foundation’s mission and goals, contribute to annual budgeting and workplanning, organizational culture and Foundation-wide systems and effectiveness.
-Manage, staff, and support the L&P Committee of MRBF’s Board, engaging regularly with committee members to ensure the Foundation’s impact and fieldbuilding strategy informs Board learning and decision making.
-Serve as a model for transparent organizational culture where ethical policies are understood and lived out by all staff.
-Communicate and exhibit a commitment to equity in all internal and external Foundation relationships.
Sector Influence and External Relations -Partner with the CEO, Leadership, and Program Team to advance the Foundation’s influence and leverage strategy, translating partners’ (grantee, narrative, and PRI) work into influence across the philanthropic sector.
-Serve as one of the Foundation’s most visible external representatives, building and stewarding relationships with peer funders, philanthropic networks, coalitions, and movement and grantee partners, traveling regularly for convenings, briefings, and one-on-one relationship building.
-Lead the team in developing and stewarding public-facing knowledge systems and infrastructure (e.g., online platform, reports) that make the case for fundable opportunities and shift funder behavior.
-Coordinate and ensure alignment of external relationships across the Program Team and guide the Foundation’s approach to field and philanthropic partnership work so its values stay aligned with effective approaches to driving resources to Southern movements and leaders.
Ideal Candidate:
-The ideal candidate is a collaborative, systems-oriented leader who understands that lasting social change is built through relationships, learning, and shared influence. They bring a demonstrated track record of helping organizations, networks, or movements translate knowledge into action, strengthen partnerships, and mobilize resources in service of meaningful, community-driven change. Whether their experience has been gained in philanthropy, the nonprofit sector, advocacy, research, organizing, or another mission-aligned field, they have successfully led through complexity and know how to build trust across diverse stakeholders.
-This executive is equally comfortable shaping organizational strategy and representing an institution externally. They are a thoughtful collaborator who thrives in partnership, particularlywith senior leaders, and naturally connects people, ideas, and opportunities across functions and organizations. An exceptional communicator and relationship builder, they understand how learning, evaluation, storytelling, and influence work together to strengthen organizations, shift philanthropic practice, and move greater resources toward communities and movements advancing social and economic justice across the South.
-Above all, the successful candidate will be deeply aligned with Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation’s mission and values. They lead with humility, curiosity, and integrity, are committed to advancing racial equity and community power, and believe that the strongest solutions are built alongside those closest to the challenges. They are energized by the opportunity to help shape an inaugural executive role that will strengthen the Foundation’s impact while contributing to a more equitable and effective philanthropic ecosystem.
Qualifications:
-Demonstrated background in social sector fieldbuilding, philanthropic influence, resource mobilization, movement support, or related work
-Experience in program evaluation, impact design, research, or a related field is a strong plus.
-Proven ability to work across lines and less traditional silos, with a strong track record of cross-team collaboration.
-Experience working effectively with a committee or board of directors.
-Strong people manager with experience building and leading teams.
-Strong facilitation and project management skills.
-Astute strategist, comfortable with complexity, who works well both within a team and across team lines.
-Practiced in deep collaboration as a way of working, not simply as a coordination exercise.
-Genuine comfort and enjoyment representing an organization externally — networking, relationship-building, and public engagement with gravitas.
-Capacity and willingness to travel regularly to represent the Foundation in the field.
Salary, Benefits, and Location -The salary range for this role is $187,000 – $210,000. The Foundation offers generous benefits, including retirement contributions, health and dental coverage, and a flexible remote work environment.
-The foundation operates entirely remotely, enabling team members to work from anywhere in its 11-state footprint, which includes Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
MRBF’s EEO Statement -The Foundation works to foster an equitable, inclusive, and supportive environment where all staff can thrive. The team pays careful attention to organizational culture, devoting time to reflection and relationship building, and closes for three weeks annually to enable team members to recharge without using vacation days.
-We welcome candidates of all backgrounds, identities, and lived experiences to apply for this opportunity.
